“That’s all I ever wanted, to be a hero”

Right I have to start this week with an apology because though I have just about kept up with cross-posting my fellow “Hero” builders posts tot the “Forgotten Heroes International” site I haven’t had time to post comments on all the excellent work that has been carried out by them. This is because my hobby time has been greatly depleted this week due to overtime at work each night and all this weekend, along with us being booked in to trade with “WSD” at the “Phalanx” wargames show today! Thankfully my wife and eldest (Myles) ended up doing this as I had to work (big thanks to them both for this). But I did spend a lot of my spare time sorting out and preparing for the show (just didn’t get the chance to buy anything at the show itself (Drat!). But enough moaning, some progress has been made and though I haven’t achieved all I was hoping this week, I am reasonably pleased with how much I have managed to get done.

Monday, and very little got done today, I did dig out my other heroklix figures to find a new pair of arms for Aftershock, the (probably) unhappy donor was Janet Van’Dyne, better known as “Wasp” from the Avengers, her arms were in pretty much the right pose (though pointed outward rather than down but that shouldn’t be a problem), and as a happy addition she also has a pair of insect wings on her back, so “Buzz Off” is now a “go’er” for the next round of “He-month”. Obviously I then had to carve out Aftershock’s right arm as well, and that was all I got done.

Tuesday, was a bit more productive, I began by shaping the tops of Aftershocks new arms ready for gluing them in place, then taking a couple of blobs of putty and slapping them in place on either side of her chest I created her crop top, leaving the gap at the front over the rectangle of putty I added a while back. Then like her shorts I added a couple of laces at the front with some tiny strands of putty. Next while this was still soft I pushed and glued her arms into place. The Prankster came next and I added the front and back to his jacket this was just three lumps of putty, two smaller ones at the front and a larger one at the back that were then shaped around his torso. I then added the collar to his jacket and a breast pocket, it looks like a body warmer at the moment but I’ll add the arms tomorrow.

Wednesday, and it was filing again I’m afraid, I’d been putting this off as long as I could but the time had come as they say. So taking one of the two arms that came with the original I-core figure I’m using as the base for Black Scorpion (the one with the pistol) I set about filing away all the excessive detail, which sadly included an armored shoulder pad that ran down to her elbow, fortunately her pistol gave me something to hold while I did this and once done I cut away most of the pistol, but again fortuitously she sometimes uses a baton or truncheon, so I plan on adding one of these to her right hand so the pistol grip and hand positioning will be okay. Last job today was to drill the hole for the wire that will form the base for said truncheon and while it was out I drilled into the Pranksters hand as well ready for his water pistol, his hand broke off while I was doing this (didn’t realize it was separate), but this will give me the chance to re-position it a bit when I glue it back on.

Thursday, I began by tidying up around Aftershocks shoulders, blending them in a bit and covering up the joints by re-sculpting the hair I’d cut away way back at the start of her conversion. Then I re-attached The Pranksters lower arm at a slightly straighter position than it was originally and then wrapping his arms in putty added the sleeves to his jacket, I ran the ends of these tight to his wrists as I’ll add his turned back cuff’s later. Then BS had her right arm attached and I blended in around the joint at the back, then I built up the truncheon around the wire that was protruding from her hand.

So we come to Friday, and though the ends may be in sight, as I said above I’m not quite over the sculpting finish line just yet. Aftershock needed her gloves extending up her arms so a couple of rings of putty were put around her elbows and smoothed out and up to the middle of her upper arms, now she just needs the apparatus she uses to cause the “shocks” and tremors she is famous for, adding to her wrists and she is done. BS also needed long gloves adding so pretty much the same procedure as above was carried out on her as well with bigger rings of putty as this time I had to run them up from her wrists. She still needs the back of her costume tidying up, her shoulder pads and of course her hair and plait adding to complete her. Prangster is the one with the most work left to do, though I have added the disfigured side of his face now, but he still needs his hair doing, along with the cuffs of his jacket and of course his “acid” shooting water pistol, this is going to take the longest I suspect, and I might have to do it separately (should have started this a while back, doh!). So all in all not a bad week all things considered but no cigar, as they say.

Now I have been asked by fellow “Forgotten Heroes International” participant Mike Boynton to show some of the tools I use when sculpting. Well this isn’t a complete view of all the stuff I have in my sculpting box but these are my main weapons of choice, along with a 12”x16” off cut piece of kitchen worktop that I tend to sculpt on. We have from top to bottom…an old Eyeshadow brush/thing from my wife’s handbag, that is just like a soft version of a colour shaper, talking of which next is my flat angled one of these, then we have a cocktail stick wrapped in greenstuff to give it a better handle, then there is a cut down very stiff old brush great for adding texture to areas of putty (like wooly jumpers), my pointed tip colour shaper next, I probably use this most of all it’s great for blending two separate bits of putty together or adding creases to clothing. A twin spiked probe next, I have quite a few different shaped ones of these but this is my favorite (can’t say why but it’s the one I always seem to use).The next thing is a new tool I made to add the studs to Ram-Man’s skirt, it’s the fine nozzle that came with some superglue stuck on the end of a cocktail stick with putty, great for adding small circles to figures, for lights on Robots etc..,A metal re-fill from an old ball point pen is next, good for adding bigger circles, then a small knife, the handle is made of coffee stirrers glued together and sanded to shape, then we have a cocktail stick sanded flat at the end in another homemade handle, my flat bladed colour shaper next great for getting a smooth finish on areas of putty, and a couple of loose cocktail sticks (always useful). The handles on most of these have been cut down to about three inches, this is because one of my dogs as a puppy chewed my flat tipped colour shaper so I had to cut it down and re-sculpt the handle, I then found I liked it better this length so then cut down all the others, and the reason I’ve painted then different colours is to make it easier to identify the different tools when they are sprawled out across my board. Now if you’ll excuse me I should be using them rather than taking pictures of them or I’ll never get the figures finished by the end of the month!

Till next week Excelsior!!

Cheers Roger.